There was beautiful stroke play on display in this game.....however, if i had to choose out of Dilshan, Mahela, Sangakara, Smith, and Kallis.......i am going to go with Kallis..........his shots were pure beauty as far as i am concerned.....Dilshan played some beauties as well and so did Smith, Mahela and Sanga...but i personally found Kallis's stroke play amazing clean hitting and he was middling everything...

No one's saying they're all the greatest players in the world, but it's nine players out of a team of eleven with no question marks over their place whatsoever. Ten if you count Mathews.

Apart from South Africa, all the other teams look a bit patchy to me. Australia have players like Tim Paine, Michael Clarke and Nathan Bracken who no one's convinced about at the moment. India have Rahul Dravid, RP Singh, Ashish Nehra; England have an entire batting lineup of weak links, New Zealand have an awful lot of inexperienced players and Pakistan are a bit mercurial.

Sri Lanka have nine or ten players who could all very easily contribute heavily to a victory. That's more than any other team, apart from the one they've already beaten.

Can't agree that AUS are patchy right now. Tim Paine is sort of a weak link, but his slow scoring can me masked by the strengh of AUS middle & lower-order. Clarke looked better in the later half of the ODI series in ENG so no worries there. No issue with Bracken, Siddle may play ahed of him given how the Jo'Burg wicket look today - which makes AUS pace attack the most lethal in this tournament.

Can't agree that AUS are patchy right now. Tim Paine is sort of a weak link, but his slow scoring can me masked by the strengh of AUS middle & lower-order. Clarke looked better in the later half of the ODI series in ENG so no worries there. No issue with Bracken, Siddle may play ahed of him given how the Jo'Burg wicket look today - which makes AUS pace attack the most lethal in this tournament.

If Joburg's pitch stays green i don't see how either Pak or Ind. can beat Aus. It will be a tough one.

Really have no clue as to who we'll be playing in Oram's stead. Diremanti? Uggghhhh... Perhaps it'd be best to pick Patel and go in with a bowling heavy lineup, not that bowling has been our major problem in ODI's recently...

Originally Posted by HeathDavisSpeed

I can think of a list of Sydney Grade posters who would contribute a better average post than Bahnz.

Really have no clue as to who we'll be playing in Oram's stead. Diremanti? Uggghhhh... Perhaps it'd be best to pick Patel and go in with a bowling heavy lineup, not that bowling has been our major problem in ODI's recently...

Ugh, that's bad. Our batting looks really weak now - I know Oram was probably unlikely to score many runs anyway but now the order looks even more questionable from number 6 down.

Hey, let's slot Franklin in there... McGlashan? N McCullum? *sigh*

Of the rest of them I'd almost prefer Diremanti play, and that's saying something.

At least Butler missing out is not too much of a blow as only two of him, Tuffey and Mills would have played anyway.

Cricinfo preparing for an SA choke judging by the preview, though they still managed to roll out all the old NZ cliches.

"Their opponents don't possess the unorthodox and unique talents of the Sri Lankans but New Zealand make up for that with discipline, doggedness and sheer hard work."

"New Zealand are a team without stars and rely on collective contribution from their batsmen to achieve a challenging total."

Sorry to sound like a kiwi with a chip on his shoulder banging on and on, but when they write a preview on us can they at least not copy and paste from every single other preview they've written on us before? Its like they need to buff up their word count or something.

Originally Posted by Athlai

Jeets doesn't really deserve to be bowling.

Originally Posted by Dan

in the future where we're all social justice-y Cribb can ride down the street to pick up some raw milk from Coles on a motorised esky while smoking meth, firing an RPG into the air, and carrying the case of British-import Stella he's polygamously (and privately) married alongside a genderfluid Zambian businessperson and a coke-snorting 18-year-old cyborg girl.

Cricinfo preparing for an SA choke judging by the preview, though they still managed to roll out all the old NZ cliches.

"Their opponents don't possess the unorthodox and unique talents of the Sri Lankans but New Zealand make up for that with discipline, doggedness and sheer hard work."

"New Zealand are a team without stars and rely on collective contribution from their batsmen to achieve a challenging total."

Found that hilarious too! A laughably bad article - who could accuse Guptill and McCullum of discipline and doggedness?

To borrow from a comedy show which I've forgotten the name of:
Binoy George started writing his article. After a few words a helpful Paperclip icon appeared in the corner of the screen with a message "you look like you are writing an article about New Zealand cricket". "Would you like me to write the article for you?" So of course Binoy clicked yes and entered a few names and dates and pressed ok. Hey presto! An article appeared with random sprinklings of phrases like 'dark horses', 'more than the sum of their parts' and 'their more fashionable opposition shouldn't take NZ lightly'.

To borrow from a comedy show which I've forgotten the name of:
Binoy George started writing his article. After a few words a helpful Paperclip icon appeared in the corner of the screen with a message "you look like you are writing an article about New Zealand cricket". "Would you like me to write the article for you?" So of course Binoy clicked yes and entered a few names and dates and pressed ok. Hey presto! An article appeared with random sprinklings of phrases like 'dark horses', 'more than the sum of their parts' and 'their more fashionable opposition shouldn't take NZ lightly'.